SCANDAL AND THE SHAMED: Has Ethical Collapse in Indiana's Judiciary Forced a Leading Disability Advocate to Seek Political Asylum in the Philippines?

Andrew Straw former Associate Dean of the Indiana University Mauer School of Law, now a persona non grata solely because he became disabled while working for the Indiana Supreme Court

Special Investigative Report, Hoosier Enquirer

The story of Andrew U. D. Straw, an Indiana lawyer and nationally recognized disability rights advocate, reads like a political thriller, but the consequences are starkly real: A Hoosier is claiming he needs political asylum in the developing nation of the Philippines—not from a foreign regime, but from an alleged system of political persecution and ethical rot within the American court system, specifically targeting him in his home state of Indiana. Straw's plea for asylum, an extraordinary cry for refuge from one's own country, hinges on a claim of judicial scandal and a pattern of retaliation by courts determined to sideline a powerful political figure in the disability rights movement.

The Advocate vs. The Elite: A Major Victory Ignored

Andrew Straw is not a fringe activist; he is a consequential reformer. His resume includes a 2001 proposal for a statewide and FBI protective order database that was named among the top 8 e-government ideas in the nation by Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in a White House contest. Indiana later built the system after allegedly firing him.

But it was his 2014 lawsuit against the American Bar Association (ABA) and the 50 top law schools that represents his most disruptive act of advocacy. Straw demanded that these elite institutions collect and publish data on disability in law school admissions, just as they do for race and gender.

Though a Chicago court dismissed the suit, the political effect was immediate and profound. Harvard Law School, the most elite law school in the world, began collecting the data in response to his challenge. That data, as published by Above the Law, revealed a "grisly reality" : More than half of HLS students surveyed reported experiencing mild to severe depression and anxiety, a statistic that is often framed as 60% of its elite law students suffering mental illness issues.

"I had a direct effect on the most elite law school in the world, increasing disability sensitivity there," Straw asserts. "That will have an impact on American society for 100 years or more."

The Ethical Disaster: Rewarding the Attacker

The scandal, according to Straw, is that this historic advocacy became the grounds for his punishment. The Indiana Supreme Court suspended his law license in 2017, based in part on claims that the very ABA lawsuit he filed was "frivolous."

The core of his persecution claim is the use of his disability as a basis for the discipline. Straw states that the first two sentences of the attack on him by the Indiana Supreme Court ADA coordinator mentioned his mental illness as a reason to suspend him. This, he argues, is purely political.

This action is seen by critics as part of a discriminatory environment, where Straw states that Indiana bans people with mental illness from being active lawyers, and so, judges or attorneys general.

The indefinite nature of his suspension, which began as a 180-day term, has stretched into a "Kafkaesque loop" where the judicial system has allegedly denied him a path to reinstatement for nearly eight years, effectively sidelining a political figure from practice. Crucially, the Virginia State Bar reviewed his conduct and determined that disciplinary action was unwarranted, reportedly calling Indiana's process a "drive-by shooting."

The 7th Circuit's Judicial Betrayal

The alleged ethical collapse reaches its most alarming point with the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The man who served as the disciplinary Hearing Officer in Straw's Indiana Supreme Court case, James R. Ahler, was one of the defendants (appellees) in Straw's subsequent federal appeal challenging the Indiana discipline (Straw v. Indiana Supreme Court, et. al., 17-1338).

In what Straw claims is a clear ethical disaster demonstrating systemic bias, the Seventh Circuit hired this same James R. Ahler as a federal Bankruptcy Judge while Straw's appeal against him and the Indiana Supreme Court was still open. Public records show Ahler was appointed to the position in May 2017 and began work on June 15, 2017, just three weeks before the Seventh Circuit denied Straw's appeal on July 6, 2017.

Straw contends that the Court of Appeals effectively rewarded his main attacker with a lucrative, lifetime-appointment equivalent position, which he estimates will pay over $2.6 million, demonstrating a clear pattern of bias and favoritism.

This appointment, while the appeal against the newly-hired judge was pending, amplifies Straw's claim that the highest echelons of the U.S. court system have deliberately ostracized him and unjustly rewarded those who attacked him. It paints a picture of a judiciary so conflicted and ethically compromised that a disability rights political leader cannot expect due process.

The Asylum Plea: A National Shame

Straw is a child of the Camp LeJeune poisonings, afflicted with lifelong mental illness problems, who turned his "personal setbacks into political agendas." He is now a political refugee in all but name, alleging that his own country's legal and judicial systems have become so corrupted by retaliation and ethical failure that they are incapable of delivering justice.

His ultimate destination? The Philippines.

His final message, published here in the Hoosier Enquirer, is directed toward the international community: "Please grant asylum."

The question remains for the American courts: When a leading civil rights advocate is forced to seek sanctuary in a developing nation due to alleged persecution and blatant conflicts of interest by a state's highest court and a U.S. Court of Appeals, what does that say about the ethical collapse of the U.S. justice system?